220 - Start of Book 8 (Patreon)

Elemental Benevolence is arguably Wizard Flatt’s greatest gift to our universe, but it is not without its flaws. One of the largest flaws of Benevolence has been proven time and time again, and is best understood through two facts:

1) The murder of hundreds of people, or fewer, occurs outside of all but the most Benevolent of Sights.

2) When it comes to the progression of civilization, there is very little which Benevolence itself will not do to ensure the best outcome for all, and every individual. Including blinding itself.

- - - -

“Father?” whispered Yggdrasil, the World Tree, his unsure voice full of quiet concern, “I wish to be my own person.”

Ah, Erick thought, as he sat upon the tallest branches of his largest son, watching the world all around, through the countless senses of 20 different bodies, and across uncountable kilometers.

Through those senses, he killed four hydras that rampaged across the northern coasts of Nergal and an ooze outbreak out of the side of a mountain in Nelboor, both of which were problems too far from civilization to matter, but they would matter, eventually, and his Benevolent Sight had drawn his attention that way. So he fixed those problems while he could. While he was doing that, he also oversaw the repair of several small parts of his Gate Network over in the Greensoil Republic.

And then he turned his attentions back to Yggdrasil, his thoughts tracing down to one large fact.

Back at Yggdrasil’s creation, Erick knew that he was going to be making a great big protective [Familiar], but due to the nature of that creation, the [Familiar] that would become Yggdrasil would grow as fast as an exploding bomb. At the time, Erick didn’t know exactly what the fallout of that explosion would look like, but the gods who had helped make Yggdrasil had known, and Erick had eventually gained that perspective himself.

One day in the future Yggdrasil would open new worlds.

He would seed new planets.

Civilization would take root across the universe, under the ever-expanding branches of the World Tree.

And so, a seal of divine fire had been placed on the largest of Erick’s sons.

A hundred years. That was the timeline for all of Veird to prepare for the opening of new worlds. For Melemizargo to prove to everyone that he wouldn’t destroy everything when another option for living became available. For civilization to adapt to the possibility of life under a different sort of Script. For new Scripts to be proposed, and then either shot down, or elevated.

I suppose it’s 90 years early, but… Here we are again at the turning of another age, unprepared and yet we will plow ahead anyway.

There was no way that Erick would allow his fully sapient son to be crushed by a seal that was little more than slavery at this point. Even though it was early. Even though it was dangerous. Erick had been ready to say ‘yes’ to Yggdrasil asking for the removal of his seal for the last few years.

“Okay, Yggdrasil. I will see about making that happen.” Erick asked, “Do you mind waiting till I can get everything set up properly? It might take months or maybe a year, but I honestly don’t know about that.”

Yggdrasil startled, his flaming green leaves and his white-branched canopy and even his crown of rainbow light overhead, all flickering in complete surprise. And then he swelled with light, and his voice was that of a happy young adult, “Really? You mean it!”

“Of course I mean it. You are your own person, Yggdrasil. I will be sad to see you go, but I know that all children must leave the nest someday.” Erick smiled a little. “I look forward to seeing you grow as big and as strong as you can, but know that I will always be here for you, Yggdrasil. Always. You can always come to me with problems or thoughts, and I will always cherish our talks, and your presence in my life, and I hope you will feel the same about me.”

The sky suddenly rained, warm and bright, as Yggdrasil turned absolutely radiant.

Erick lay down on the soft bed of moss underneath his stretched out body, his tail curling around the branch underneath as he wrapped his dark wings and scaled neck around the branch in front of him. He spoke with Benevolence in his white-fire maw, “I love you, Yggdrasil.”

“I love you too, father.”

Erick pulled back, and tears of white flowed down his draconic face, causing rainbow flowers to bloom wherever they touched his mossy bed here, at the top of Yggdrasil. His voice cracked, “You— You’re going to have to give me some time to make sure this works right, okay? The gods put a seal on you when you were born, and I’m probably going to have to unwind that seal softly, so nothing breaks. I cannot and will not Wizardry it away.”

“Of course! I understand!”

Erick smiled. And then he flickered, transforming from black dragon to human-sized and human-shaped. That same flicker put his clothes back on, and then he just breathed for a little bit, as he looked up and all around. Yggdrasil was growing up strong—

Ophiel alighted on Erick’s shoulder. He was a little white crow these days, with four wings and a bird-appropriate amount of other appendages. Still had more than the normal amount of eyes, though. His voice was considerably more childlike than Yggdrasil’s.

He chirped, “Where go?”

“We’re going to find out how to get your big brother unsealed,” Erick said, as he patted the little guy.

“Can I unseal?!”

Erick chuckled. “When you’re older it’ll happen naturally.”

“Okay!”

Erick grinned, then looked up. “You know, Yggdrasil, a lot of people are going to be asking you a lot of uncomfortable questions about this. They’re all going to be worried about Melemizargo having some sort of influence on you. Has he? Has he talked to you about this, and tried to make you make this decision?”

Yggdrasil softly said, “We’ve spoken, but if he has a plot to make me ask this of you, then it is too deep for me to suss out—” He rapidly added, “I already looked at the Benevolent Sky before I asked this of you. Minutes ago, I did this. It… It looks clear.”

“Okay. That’s good.” Erick asked, “Why do you want this to happen now?”

“… I just… I just do.”

It was a final statement. And yet, it was not good enough.

“I’ll be on your side on this decision, Yggdrasil. I’ll always be on your side, because I am your father. Please tell me why you want this to happen now.”

“… I…” Yggdrasil rapidly said, “I want to make an [Avatar] and not have you there with me all the time.”

Well. That was surprising. Erick had given Yggdrasil all the space he could ever want, but he could understand Yggdrasil’s desire for privacy. The big guy was probably telling a white lie, too, but that was also fine.

Erick said, “Perfectly understandable. I trust you with all the power I have given you, and I trust you to be on your own. I’ll make this happen, but it might take a while. Months. Maybe more.”

“That’s fine!” Yggdrasil calmed, saying, “I can wait… some.” He whispered, “But not 90 more years. Never that. I would like less than a year, please.”

“I’ll try to make that happen.”

- - - -

The sky was blue and endless, its perfection accented by soft white clouds that lingered here and there, some fluffy, some wispy. Erick’s feet barely sank into the cloud underfoot, which was barely big enough for him to stand upon. He could move the cloud around at his whim, but he didn’t need to. The person he was seeking floated ahead, her serpentine white body stretching across the infinite world within the Core of Veird.

Rozeta briefly turned away from the blue screens around her head, her eyes briefly going wide as she took in Erick’s small form. And then she stilled, her entire body freezing briefly. “Ah,” she uttered, her voice endless and solid. “He wants to be free.”

“Yes. Is it too early?”

“It is absolutely too early.” Rozeta frowned. In one flashing instant she was no longer her sky-spanning self. She stepped onto a larger cloud directly in front of Erick, looking much like a white human wrought in a pantsuit. “The unsealing of Yggdrasil will result in several rapid events. The seeding of new worlds, the danger of my father running rampant, Wizardry being unleashed by you and that other Wizard down in Nergal in order to stem the destruction of everything, or to create something new. And that’s not even getting to the confusion of settling a new Script on another world. You’re not ready. I’m not ready. No one is ready for that.”

“I agree.” Erick said, “But I’m not chaining Yggdrasil to myself for the next 90 years. He will grow resentful and hateful of every single one of us who keeps him down, and he will be right to have those feelings. This will cause damage later, and in a much more long term way.”

“Yes, it will. Absolutely. But whenever Yggdrasil is released, he will still seed new worlds even without our assistance. It is okay if it takes him a thousand years to get over the first hundred imprisoned years of his life.”

“Then how about we shift the seal so it prevents seeding?”

Rozeta scoffed. “Any random Wizard of any flavor could undo the seal when the seal is only on Yggdrasil, and only restricting one part of him. Right now, the first main hurdle to undoing the seal involves going through you, and that will not happen unless you allow it to happen.” With perhaps too much anger in her voice, Rozeta asked, “Would you allow that to happen? Even when you shouldn’t?”

“I’m looking for solutions to make everyone happy, that’s why I came here.”

Rozeta frowned a little, her sudden worry and anger not really leaving, but they did take a back seat to all the rest of her thoughts.

Erick added, “And I might be able to become a Full Wizard once Yggdrasil isn’t a part of me.”

Rozeta sighed, exhausted, but she was happy for the change of topic. “There are so many possible reasons why you can’t become a Full Wizard… This could be connected to that. Having an extra soul in your body? Sure. Ophiel isn’t a problem, for [Familiar]s have never been a problem for Wizards ascending to true power, but the divine seal on Yggdrasil could be making that real ascension a problem. Wizards are complicated and, quite frankly, impossible to truly understand. I still think your problem is merely mental, and hinging on anything from your unwillingness to make yourself a true power, to your distaste for truly selecting who you want to be.” She added, “You still have yet to combine your double forms into a singular entity. In my opinion, that is the reason you cannot ascend… But you have tried, and failed… somehow...”

Rozeta, Goddess of the Script, went silent, thinking, her eyes flickering briefly to the left, and then back to Erick, then off into infinity, as she took care of many different things happening outside of sight.

Erick waited.

Rozeta turned back to Erick. “Okay. I can allow this freeing of Yggdrasil to happen. BUT! I have some conditions for you to clear before I condone this action. The largest one is this: The seal will shift onto Yggdrasil, restricting his ability to produce seeds for 90 years. If he wants to simply have an avatar body so he can play around with people-sized friends, then that is one thing, but he won’t be making world tree seeds. When someone tries to break this seal, I need you to be able to [Return] to before the breaking, and to prevent it. This final requirement demands you ascend to Full Wizard… Which means you need to figure out how to do that, Erick. Whatever it takes, except for Big Wizardry. I need you to be a true Paradox Wizard.” Her exhaustion left her as the enormity of the change hit home, and Rozeta simply said, “It’s likely all connected, anyway, so this is probably how this was always going to happen.”

Erick had problems becoming a Full Wizard. Full crystallization wasn’t a problem, but he had done that, and then transformed back into a person, and then the full crystallization was simply gone, like it had never happened at all. Rozeta didn’t know what was going on, and Melemizargo had spoken of some possibilities, but Wizards often encountered this problem, and it was usually up to them to figure it out. Melemizargo blamed the Script interference, of course, and Rozeta had gone silent at that accusation.

Later, she had spoken to Erick about how the Script could, theoretically, be holding him back, and also how he shouldn’t use Big Wizardry to solve that problem. Pull the problem apart piece by piece, as he had when he gave himself some Class Abilities from other Classes, she had said. Erick had tried a few more times to become a Full Wizard and had a few more conversations with Rozeta about the whole ordeal, but he had never actually been able to fully claim his Full Paradox Wizard powers.

No flying through time and space, however far he wished to go, among other things. Not yet.

Erick said, “Thank you, Rozeta. I’ll chip away at that crystallization problem after Yggdrasil is released.”

“It will be easier to do all that when you don’t have an extra, sealed soul inside of you…” Rozeta sighed. “Removing the seal is going to be a lot of work. It was made by four gods and then by you. You will have to get Sininindi, Atunir, Melemizargo, and then myself, to assist you with this undoing of the seal. My part will be easy, but I will be the last one to remove my part of the seal. In order for me to do that, you must promise me that you will ascend to Full Wizard once Yggdrasil has been separated from you. Instantly, if you could, and then I want you to be ready with True Time Magic in case this all goes belly up. Gods are limited in what they can do, but Wizards are not.”

“Easily agreed; I promise. The Time Magic is already mostly done. I’ll even be able to truly use it once I’m fully immune to paradoxes.”

“I also want you to make a dungeon slime copy of yourself, before this all happens, in case I need a backup of you.”

Erick was suddenly less sure of himself and his decisions. “Really?”

“Yes. You are at the center of this world right now, and I need a backup of you in case this unsealing ends with you dead.”

“… That’s a possibility?”

“We’re talking Wizardry here, Erick. Many things are possible. I know you’ve been reluctant to make a copy of yourself, but the simple fact is that you’re too valuable to risk on this endeavor without many different assurances of safety. I would prefer if you stayed in your tower and never left, organizing the world from afar and ensuring your Gate Network remains stable, but we both know Kiri is ascending to that role soon. Now is the time for you to make a backup, if not for the world, then for her, so she has someone who can guide her while you’re off doing these quests.”

“… All fair points. Okay. I’ll… I’ll do that.”

With sudden exasperation hidden behind so much strength, Rozeta said, “Tell me I can trust you to wield this power prudently.”

Erick gave a small smile, then he stood firm. “I always have the interests of every person in mind whenever I do anything.”

“I know. I just needed to hear it again.” The Goddess responsible for holding the world together took a deep breath. “Thank you.”

The Wizard who could break everything waited.

And then, in an easier, friendly tone, Rozeta began, “So! To start with, after you make a repro who can backup all the magic you’ve got strung across the world, even though you’re prepping Kiri for Gatemaster, you’re going to want to go to Sininindi at the Storm Temple down in Archipelago Nergal...”

They spoke for a while, and not that long at all.

By the time they were done, Erick came to a conclusion, “I’m going to need to take a large break from being the Apparent King, aren’t I.”

Rozeta shrugged. “As long as you don’t make it as big of a vacation as your Worldly Path, then everything should go well enough. The problem is going to be getting my father to agree to not do anything untoward in the following years… One of many problems, I suppose. I’ll talk to all of them and make sure they’re on board with this.”

“I’ll start setting things up on my end, then, and await your full response.”

“It shouldn’t take long to gain preliminary assurances one way or the other. Maybe a week. Depending on what they say you’re going to either have to give Yggdrasil the bad news, or prepare for a sabbatical. I’m guessing the latter.”

There was one final question to ask before Erick moved on.

“There isn’t some Wizard out there fucking with Yggdrasil, right? Or some other force?”

“Not to my knowledge.” Rozeta said, “That was one of the first things I checked for, but it appears Yggdrasil simply wants to be released from the seal, himself.”

“… I am suddenly reminded of another concern. How long do I have till Ophiel is matured?”

“He’s about six months to a year away, I would say.”

Erick felt a double pang of loss thrum through his chest. “Ah… They grow up so fast, don’t they.”

Rozeta smiled kindly. “They do.” Then she added, “It might take you around 9 months to get through whatever demands the others place upon you, so the fact that both of your [Familiar]s are on the same timetable makes this whole thing smell of Fate… Or maybe Benevolence. Keep that in mind going forward and be ready with the… Medium Wizardry if needed.”

“… Right.” Erick asked, “How are the reserves? The mana generation? Can Veird survive a catastrophe?”

“A minor catastrophe; yes. The reserves exist, thanks to the dungeons, but the growing population of the world is still several decades away from being able to support the Script on its own. If my father chooses to remove the dungeons on a whim then we could last maybe one year. 14 months. We would have to flood the world with monsters in order to stabilize.” Rozeta shrugged. “My father could always destroy this world, though, so the most we could ever do is prepare for the worst and hope he forgets about all our emergency preparations. With how sane he’s being these days, hoping for him to forget about the backup powers would be wishful thinking, though.”

“But with his sanity… Do you think he would actually try to harm Veird if a new world became available?”

Rozeta had answered that question a hundred thousand times over in the last decade of peace on Veird. She gave the same answer, yet again. “There’s no way to know until it happens.”

- - - -

Erick stepped out of Rozeta’s domain, down onto the branches of Yggdrasil at Candlepoint—

“Is it happening?!” Yggdrasil asked, all excited, hopeful, dreading, and worried at once.

“With caveats and clearances needed to obtain before the actual release, and then seal will transfer to you so that you cannot create any seeds for the next 90 years, and I need to personally ensure that nothing disturbs that timeline through Paradox Time Magic… But yes. It’s likely happening.”

Yggdrasil listened calmly, and then his glow dimmed a little. “That’s…” He went silent, in thought. After a moment, his glow returned. “Okay. That’s… That’s good? Is that good?”

“I think it’s very good, but yes, it’s still an imposition. This is what it means to be powerful; impositions everywhere.”

A fluttering wind flowed through Yggdrasil’s branches; a sigh that trailed off into the wind.

Erick decided to get all the uncomfortable questions out there. “Have you met someone you want to make babies with? Or seeds? Or [Familiar]s?”

Yggdrasil flushed bright as Erick named several methods of reproduction. “What! No! I want to make an [Avatar] spell of my own! I don’t want to make other people yet!”

“So you want to have relations with some person. You want to make an [Avatar] spell that is not made through me, so that I don’t know about what you put into that spellwork.”

“… Yes.”

“You can tell me what spells you want, Yggdrasil, and I will make it for you. No questions asked. No judgment, either.”

“… I want the seal removed.”

“Do I know this person?”

“No, and please don’t go looking.”

“I will respect this wish. You’ll tell me who it is eventually, though, right?”

“Yes! Eventually. Not right now.” Yggdrasil tensed as muttered curses flowed through the wind, barely audible.

“It’ll probably be 6 to 12 months before I can get the seal removed.”

Yggdrasil turned slightly happy again. “That’s fine!”

“Then here’s the general idea of what is going to happen. I need the four gods who helped me to make you to release their part of the seal. Sininindi, Goddess of Storms and Sea, Atunir, Goddess of Field and Fertility, Melemizargo, God of Magic, and then Rozeta, Goddess of the Script. All of them are probably going to ask something of me. Finally, at the end, Rozeta will then transform the seal inside me into a seal on you, which prevents seeding of new worlds until we’re ready for that. Shortly after, I’ll become a full Paradox Wizard to ensure that the seal remains in place, which means me popping back and forth through time to ensure the next 90 years remain as stable as they are right now… 87 years, actually. Anyway. That’s the tentative plan. Rozeta is working right now to check to see if the plan is viable, and we’ll have confirmation one way or the other within a week.” Erick asked, “Okay?”

“Okay!” Yggdrasil’s enthusiasm returned. “That’s great!”

“Maybe by summer of next year, your whole spell box will change, and that part about how ‘The World Tree has yet to be planted.’ will go away entirely.”

“I hope so.”

Erick smiled softly, then said, “Rozeta suspects that Ophiel will naturally separate by then, as well. So this is probably either a Fateful-thing, or more realistically, a Benevolent-thing, happening to both of us.”

Ophiel chirped on Erick’s shoulder. “I’m here!”

Erick smiled at him. “Yes you are.”

“… Uh.” Yggdrasil asked, “Is that going to be okay?”

Ophiel sang, “Me born first! I go first!”

A silent moment passed.

Because this was a new part of Ophiel that Erick had never seen before. He wanted to be born first?

Yggdrasil was probably having the same sort of odd feeling.

“Maybe you’ll both be born on the same day?” Erick asked, “How would you two like that?”

Yggdrasil gave a rather uncertain, “Uhh.”

Ophiel said, “Me first! I here first!”

“I’m so much older than him, though,” Yggdrasil said, as a big [Scry] eye appeared in front of Erick and Ophiel, looking down on Ophiel. “I’m bigger than you. I’m firstborn.”

“Nope!” Ophiel launched off of Erick’s shoulder, rapidly transforming into his full three-meter form, full of wings and eyes, like a twister of feathers. “I’m older! I’m first!”

“By like half a year! I’m bigger! More developed!” Yggdrasil exclaimed.

Erick smiled a little as he felt another pang of loss and growth and change filter through his body like a warm chill. “You’ll both mature when you should, and not a moment before. And besides. You’re not fighting for firstborn. You’re fighting for second child and third child, and you’ll both get more siblings in the future anyway, so the current exact order doesn’t really matter.”

Yggdrasil and Ophiel looked at their father, then back at each other.

Ophiel said, “I’m older! I go before you!”

“I’m smarter! I’m—”

Erick interrupted, “You’re both incredibly smart. Don’t talk like that to each other. However it happens, will happen.”

Ophiel turned small again and Yggdrasil dimmed a fraction.

“Yes, father,” then said, in unison.

Erick nodded. “Now I have to go prepare. Who knows when Rozeta calls back with an answer—”

A blue box appeared, proving Erick wrong.

- - 

Erick,

The plan to unseal Yggdrasil is workable, and we will be doing this. The speed at which all participants and even the Relevant Entities agreed to this is astounding, even to me, but much like when we decided to go for the dungeon cores, this seems to have happened the same way. Everyone wants something from Yggdrasil. I am sure some of these wants will require you to smack the requester down with proper Wizardry, and to undo whatever they tried to pull.

But as for the four who helped create Yggdrasil:

Sininindi wishes for help with Everbless and a dungeon. She requests Quilatalap’s direct assistance, which might take a while. Approach Storm’s Edge incognito for further instructions.

Atunir has plans she wants expedited. She will speak to you about those plans after you are done with Sininindi. She wishes for complete anonymity in solving her problem, so just you; no Quilatalap. She still hates him.

Melemizargo wants about 3 months of your minimally-divided time. He’ll approach you when you’re done with Sininindi and Atunir.

My part will be easy. I’ll see you after you’re done with the rest, or if this looks to be going poorly halfway through.

~Rozeta

- -

Erick read the thing instantly, and then showed Ophiel and Yggdrasil. “That went faster than I thought it would, and also confirms the timetable… And this means I’ll need to take an actual break from the kingdom.”

Yggdrasil flashed bright, though his voice was suddenly hollow. “It’s happening?”

“Yes.”

Sudden, joyful laughter filled the air, as all of Yggdrasil, every part of him spreading across the nearest 30 kilometers, from his mossy-covered white branches, to his flaming green canopy, to the rainbow crown and the deeper parts of him that spread through the lake, all of him turned radiant.

Every single Yggdrasil the world over was displaying the same way, too.

So it wasn’t surprising when Poi’s concerned voice came through, ‘There is a disturbance with Yggdrasil—’ Poi went silent as he mentally heard all about the last hour of Erick’s life. And then he went, ‘Oh. Well. That’s a big change? Okay. I’ll… I’ll make it work—’ Poi rapidly added, ‘I cannot make that work. You’re going to have to make that work yourself. I’m alerting everyone that nothing is happening, though, so that will buy you time to make further decisions.’

Erick smiled a little. ‘Thank you.’

‘Sis is making dinner tonight. Do you want it to be special? If you’re headed out right away?’

Erick decided, ‘I’m not headed out right away. It’ll take a few days. Gotta set up… Everything.’ Erick felt an ephemeral weight press down on him as he realized, again, that the world was changing, threatening to pull out from under him and leave him hanging and scrambling to set everything back to rights. ‘I’ll be home when I’m home.’

‘Want me to inform anyone of your decision to take a ‘vacation’?’

Erick almost laughed. ‘You say that word with such disdain, Poi! Ha! But… No. Not yet. I’ll figure all that out in the coming days. See you for a perfectly normal dinner.’ Erick ended the message to Poi, then said to his largest son, “We’ll talk more later, Yggdrasil. I have to go back to work.”

Yggdrasil stopped giggling long enough to say, “Later, father!” but he had to come back to the moment, back to Candlepoint, to tell his father that; his attention had rapidly moved elsewhere once he had seen Rozeta’s letter.

Erick was pretty sure that if he looked right now, he would find out who Yggdrasil was interested in, but he decided not to do that. The best way to make your kid never trust you again was to pry too much into their private lives. The Apparent King, Wizard of Benevolence, considered that particular thought a second time, though, because whoever Yggdrasil was talking with right now could be a security risk.

Again, though, Erick decided that prying into his child’s private life was too much.

He trusted Yggdrasil, and that’s all there was to it.

Erick flickered over to House Benevolence and spent the next several hours in meetings. All of those meetings were basic interactions with individual clients or larger populations, or organizations, or paperwork, or Network maintenance. He only needed to use Time Magic to expand his available hours from 3, to 13.

All in all, it was a rather normal day.

By the end of it, though, Erick realized that he was truly ready for a vacation.

- - - -

Erick flickered away from House Benevolence, departing his office right as the sun touched down on the western horizon. He loved this time of the day, just as he loved sunrise, so he allowed himself the pleasure of taking in the sunset from the western tower of his cloud castle. As he stepped across white eternal stonewood, supported by Cloud Magic below, Erick caught a glimpse of Yggdrasil to the south, where he rose like the world’s largest mountain on green fire, surrounded by rainbows. Erick smiled at that, for Yggdrasil had come a long way since—

Poi opened the nearby door to the porch, carrying some beers. He handed one over, saying, “Times shifting again, eh.”

Erick smiled wider at Poi’s sudden entrance.

One of the best decisions Erick had ever made was enchanting this castle so that if you were attuned to it, you couldn’t mana sense anyone else who was attuned to it; unattuned people, if they managed to get up here and survive the next few seconds, were very visible, though. It made Erick feel rather normal not to be able to see through every single wall all the time. Poi, with his Mind Magic, was unaffected, and that was fine; he had asked for it to be that way, for being truly alone was a form of torture for a Mind Mage. For Erick, though, and for most people, seeing through walls was not normal. The particular enchantments on this cloud castle weren’t just blanket Privacy magics, though; they were Privacy magics that only applied to those who were attuned to those magics.

Teressa had said that this place was one of the only ones she could actually relax inside, and Erick and all the other residents of the house heartedly agreed.

Teressa and her husband, Dariok. Poi, still single. Poi’s sister Rizala and her husband, Variol. Kiri had a nice place on the southwestern edge of the invisible-to-all-others castle, and she even used it most of the time, but Jane’s house was mostly empty at all hours. Jane lived here only sporadically. Though they all lived here, they all had different houses linked together upon the various islands of this particular cloud.

All of those thoughts flickered through Erick’s head as he smiled and accepted one of the beers. They had all come a long way in the last decade, and now, the world was changing again.

Erick sat down on one of his favorite chairs to watch the sun set in the distance. “It’s been a normal day, except for all the changes.”

“Feels like yesterday we moved off of the branches and into this cloud castle.” Poi popped open his own beer and sat down next to Erick, in his own chair. “But it’s been years already.”

“Almost seven… Almost seven years since he first told me he didn’t want people on his branches anymore. I was expecting to have a house on that branch forevermore, but… The castle is better.”

Erick did still have a private home on Yggdrasil, for just him, and a few treasures he had collected over the years. But Yggdrasil was a fully sapient person. Years ago, the big guy had gone uncharacteristically quiet, Erick had asked what was wrong, and then he had made plans to move off of Yggdrasil, and into this house here.

It was a nice ‘house’. Tenebrae had even helped Erick to make it work, though by the time Erick started working on this place and talking to the cloud giants to get a seed cloud from them, Tenebrae’s help had been superfluous. Erick had only asked him for his input so that Erick could offer him help regaining some of his own magic that he was having trouble with. The old archmage might have been reincarnated into a young man’s body, but he was still too ornery to accept help from others. And so, Erick got a cloud castle out of the deal, along with a bunch of secrets of cloud giants that he actually did not know, and Tenebrae and his wife, Palodia, got some powerleveling to 90.

Erick smiled a little bit at that memory.

Tenebrae and so many, many others complained how monsters inside dungeons did not give experience, but that was Melemizargo’s unsaid decree. Almost every dungeon system had a secondary experience system that either capped-out after imparting its learning experience, or gave the delver gains that did not transfer to Veird. The only thing that actually transferred was basic mana production, some basic material items, and learning opportunities, but only when the delver did the dungeon correctly.

Technically, Melemizargo would only allow a dungeon to actually operate as the dungeon master wanted them to operate, if he approved of the dungeon in the first place. Practically, though, Erick only knew of a few situations where a dungeon was specifically disallowed. The major disallowed dungeon was where a dungeon held no danger, and instead had an overabundance of items.

One particularly fun dungeon down at Weald had a basic Script interface, but instead of experience, the dungeon gave the delver 10 Stat points for every slime they killed. Of course, the Stats were only useful inside that dungeon, and there were almost no slimes inside at all; one had to go hunting for slimes. The dungeon looked like Weald, with buildings and beds and potted plants and all sorts of normal stuff, but there were no people, and every other thing was actually a mimic, filled with teeth and tongues and an all-devouring hunger...

So many things had changed these last 13 years since Erick and Jane had fallen to Veird.

Erick was the Apparent King of a population of 20 million people, here at the heart of the Gate Network, where Yggdrasil reached 30 kilometers into the sky and all the Crystal Forest had been transformed into green lands. Directly below Erick’s cloud castle, which was made of several castles with a few towers and an orrery thrown in for good measure, House Benevolence oversaw the Gate District, which was home to a thousand Gates, each leading off to distant lands. The sky was a scarce hexagonal grid of a Node Network, which kept the whole thing running well, feeding mana to every magic that supported this land, protecting everything within 200 kilometers of Yggdrasil from all sorts of dangers.

Erick was proud of it all, but especially of everything taken together, and of course, of [Renew] which made it all possible.

[Renew] had changed the world. With that one spell, Erick had shifted the entire dynamic of international and personal danger on Veird from one of ‘who can strike first and wipe out the enemy’, to one of polite war, if at all. There were still problems, of course. The Quiet War and the Forever War were always a problem, but the actual effects of those wars had been mitigated to something far, far less dangerous. Even first strikes through the Gate Network itself were something of a true anomaly these days.

Erick had done that. Him and his House, and his people.

Looking back on it, the Teleport Exodus had been truly good for the world.

Erick gazed across the western sky, at the green land stretching out into the far distance, and at the mountains a bit to the north, and the Wall of the Wasteland Kingdoms, which was little more than a dark line on the horizon. A glance at the north, and Erick saw greenery that stretched all the way to that horizon, too.

The Crystal Forest had been pushed back. The only place where Crystal Mimics existed anymore was on a thousand-kilometer wide wildlife preserve around Kendrithyst, which included Kal’Duresh, New Brightwater, Spur, and the rebuilt human city of Frontier, which had been built on the eastern side of Kendrithyst. All five of those cities still benefited greatly from the mimics, and though Erick had pushed to eradicate Veird’s major source of [Polymorph] potions, he had been pushed back even harder. The mimics were universally level 30-ish, and they were easy to kill. Erick himself had benefited from killing those things back in the day, so who was he to deny others the right to gain those levels?

Erick had let that argument go years ago. Face stealers weren’t much of a problem these days, anyway, because Erick had personally overseen the removal of those sorts of communities over the years.

All four cities around the geode of Kendrithyst were practically metropolises now. Kendrithyst itself was only a quarter of a metropolis, though. Queen Anhelia’s reign had brought that land up to a million people strong, most of them wrought, but dungeons of all kinds were strewn throughout the other three-quarters of the Not-Dead City, and they suffered dungeon breaks more than most.

They liked it that way, though.

Erick took in the sunset as he sipped his beer, silently thinking about everything, and how it was all changing again.

“It’s not another Wizard?” Poi asked.

“Doubtful.” Erick gazed across the world. “Yggdrasil is growing up and I think he has a girlfriend, or boyfriend… Or… Something. Someone.”

And soon, Erick was going to lose the ability to see through Yggdrasil, to check on all the other parts of the world that he couldn’t see with Ophiel… And Ophiel was going to become his own person, too. Both of those events were liable to happen at the same time, and that was terrifying in a whole host of ways. Erick was going to go from having eyes all across the world, and in several different nearby locations at once, to only having his own eyes and his singular, 500-meter-range mana sense… Along with whatever Benevolence triggers Erick might sense now and then.

He wasn’t getting one of those Benevolence triggers now, though. All day long, Erick had been feeling nothing more than the weight of the changing of an age upon him, which was distinctly different from a Benevolence marker. Those were usually much more pointed. His current malaise was definitely tied to the uncertainty of the current situation; not to any specific danger… Or at least that’s what he was telling himself.

Ophiel, wide-eyed this whole time and sitting on the railing in front of Erick and Poi, piped up. “He has a girlfriend!”

Shock suddenly rippled through Erick, leaving worry in its wake—

Yggdrasil’s angry [Scry] eye appeared beyond the railing and his voice came with it, “Ophiel!”

“No fighting!” Erick said strongly. While Ophiel grinned with his many eyes and Yggdrasil’s eye turned dimmer, Erick continued, “Ophiel. You shouldn’t have said that to me. I wanted to respect Yggdrasil’s choice not to tell me yet.”

Ophiel turned sad, drooping a little, as Yggdrasil’s eye brightened wide.

Erick continued, “Please don’t tattle on each other unless it’s an emergency, and a girlfriend is not an emergency. That said: Yggdrasil. I am happy that you have found a girlfriend. I want to see her before the seal is passed on to you. You’ve got several months to tell me who she is.”

Yggdrasil’s eye turned a little dim. “Yes, Father.”

“I am very glad that she’s a girlfriend and not a Wizard or something like that.” Erick said, “It was wrong of Ophiel to tell me about it, but he was looking out for the world, as must we all.”

Ophiel fluffed up a little bit.

And Yggdrasil sighed a little. “I know. I just wanted more time to tell you about her. I wasn’t even sure if this was going to happen.”

“You deserve to grow and prosper as you desire, Yggdrasil.” Erick said, “I’ll be there to help you as long as I can, which is hopefully for many, many more years to come.”

Yggdrasil’s eye nodded, and then vanished back into nothing.

Erick sipped his beer, and then turned to Poi. “You want to come with me on an incognito trip around the world again?”

“Nope!” Poi laughed a little. “I’m not going out there with you and Quilatalap, even if it seems Quilatalap will be dropped off at the first stop. Someone has to stay behind to tell you to come back to base when everything falls apart. Despite what you might think, Kiri is still years away from being ready to take over your duties.”

“Bah!” Erick chuckled. “She’ll be fine. The best way to learn a job is on the job, and she’s been the Overseer of Gate Expansion for years now. She can be Gatemaster easily enough. She’s not some 19 year-old girl anymore, and you’ll be here as Overseer of Mind Magic, anyway, helping her… Unless you actually do want to go with me around the world again?”

Poi smiled softly. “Maybe when it’s not a working vacation.”

“I’ll hold you to that!”

“Are you going to tell the others?” Poi stated, “You’re telling us, of course. But as for the kingdom itself: are you thinking of slinking off into the night, and letting the kingdom resolve itself?”

“… I wasn’t honestly thinking of the second one. But.” Erick asked, “It could be a good stress test? The kingdom runs well enough without me there to hold their hands all the time, and I’ve been asked to be incognito by both Sininindi and Atunir. I don’t think Melemizargo cares, but I’ll be doing that on my own, anyway.”

Poi briefly leveled a disbelieving stare at Erick, then he turned back toward the sunset. “I fully expect us to need to call you back halfway through this endeavor.”

“… Yeah. Probably.”

Erick stared out at the sunset.

There was just so much left to do at the House. The democracy debacle over in the Cities was still unfolding. The Gate expansions to the next layer of the Underworld. Kiri would be fine, in a general sort of way, since she had basically been doing the job of Gatemaster for the last few years, but she needed someone to step up and take her place as the Overseer of Gate Expansion…

“Who do you think Kiri will pick for her Overseer of Gate Expansion?”

“I don’t know, but probably Vixo Juliz.”

“Her secretary?”

Poi shrugged. “I’m just glad that this isn’t nearly as much of an emergency as I thought it was when all the world saw Yggdrasil flickering brightly.”

Erick smiled a little. “Me, too.”

The two old friends watched the sun set upon the western horizon, sipping their beers in companionable silence, and a bit more small talk. Erick finished off his beer as the sun finally passed beyond the edge of the world.

And then Erick said, “I’m going to make it a clean break, Poi, as much as I can. It’d be too easy to step back into this life and keep solving problems. I’d be king forever, and I’d like that. We’re doing a lot of good. Every day, new babies are born, mothers and fathers make new houses in the monster-free land, cities arise where there once was war. And yet, there is no way for those new people to reach upward, with me at the top. Everything in this world moves through my Gate Network. I could end this utopia with a flick of intent, canceling every single [Gate] out there, and I hate that.” Staring out into the twilight sky, Erick said, “Other people hate that, too. I know everyone at the House tries to shield me from that hate, with Zolan vetting every single meeting before it happens and all the other Overseers doing the same... But I know I have too much power. No one should have this much power, even if they do good things with it. I have to give it up to the next generation.”

“I respectfully disagree, and those naysayers can go fuck themselves.”

Erick laughed. Poi did not, which made Erick laugh all over again, ending in a soft smile.

Poi said, “Also, we don’t shield you from anything. We just don’t allow it inside the House.”

Erick gave a noncommittal grumble and a shrug.

After a silent moment, Poi asked, “When Ophiel and Yggdrasil separate, are you going to make another [Familiar] that won’t? Like with Archmage Tenebrae’s [Summon Rocky]?”

“Maybe not for a long time…” Erick had a thought. “But if Kiri’s Sunny is on the same timeline as Ophiel, then maybe I’ll help her to make something like [Summon Rocky].”

Poi said, “I don’t think that will be a problem for a while; years, maybe. Sunny is not nearly as advanced as Ophiel.”

Ophiel spoke up, “I’m advanced!”

Erick smiled. “Yes you are, Ophiel.”

“Sun set!” Ophiel fluffed out, asking, “Dinner time?”

Erick got out of his chair, saying, “I suppose it is.”

- - - -

Ophiel led the way into the dining room, fluttering forward and heading straight for his perch beside Erick’s chair, squeaking about how excited he was for his vegetables. The little guy loved his peas and carrots, and Erick marveled at that fact for what had to be the twentieth time, or more. Jane had hated her vegetables. But of course, Erick hadn’t been able to cook nearly as well as Rizala, or Teressa, or Poi, back then, when he was trying to make whatever dinner he could make in the brief time he had to make that dinner. Oftentimes Jane had needed to eat with the sitter…

Time moved so fast, didn’t it.

Erick banished those melancholy thoughts, breathed deep, and said, “It’s smells wonderful, Rizala.”

Poi’s sister, Rizala, walked out of the archway that led to the kitchen, carrying a turkey. She looked tired yet happy, and also very, very pregnant. Her dress ballooned outward, her blue scales seeming to glitter cerulean in the light of the dining room—

Her husband, Variol, came rushing out of the kitchen behind Rizala, softly saying, “I can carry that—”

“Bah!” Rizala said, as she playfully kept the turkey out of her husband’s hands. “I cooked it! I can serve it, too.”

She slipped the turkey onto the table and then looked to Erick, pretending as though she couldn’t read his mind just as easily as Poi already had. The only one in the room who didn’t know what was happening was Rizala’s husband.

Variol stepped backward, away from his wife, looking chastised and embarrassed, only half of which was due to failing to help his wife with dinner as much as he could. He had likely tried to do everything for her, though, and was embarrassed that she hadn’t allowed him to help more. He was also certainly afraid of disappointing Erick. Though the pink incani man had moved into the castle last year, he was still very much unable to truly function around the Apparent King.

Erick had stopped teasing the guy about that months ago. He almost decided to tease him again, in that moment, but… No. Erick said to Rizala, “It looks delicious.”

Turkey, potatoes, veggies. Butter, bread, gravy. It wasn’t a full ‘christmas dinner’, but it was most of the way there, and it looked divine. Rizala loved these big spreads, and Erick loved when she cooked. Now that she was on maternity leave, she was cooking every day, making enough for…

It didn’t look like enough for everyone?

Oh.

Erick instantly understood.

“It’s only us four tonight,” Rizala said, confirming Erick’s suspicions. “Teressa and Dariok said they’d be stuck at The Orrery tonight, overlooking some interesting Prognostication events that came across their Vision. Kiri is simply going to be late with something or other; she wouldn’t say what, exactly. They all said not to wait.”

Erick’s plans to tell everyone about Yggdrasil went on hold; he’d just be explaining to Variol, and Erick would rather wait for everyone to get the information all at once. He smiled anyway. “They will have missed a great meal. It all looks great.”

Rizala smiled wide. “It’ll taste even better!”

And it did.

- - - -

The Grand Dungeon of House Benevolence was one of the largest and most intricate dungeons in the world.

The entrance to that dungeon was located about 20 kilometers northwest of the Gate District, between the Elemental Dungeons and Benevolence Tower. The original entrance had been inside the House itself, but Quilatalap quickly gained control of the dungeon and moved that entrance to where it was now; inside a large, black crystal expanse.

It wasn’t long after that relocation that the Office of the Exterior, overseen by Mox Dawnsider, had organized the harvesting of the Grand Dungeon, as the Office of the Exterior had already done for all the other normal dungeons in the area.

Mox and Quilatalap had a decent enough working relationship, which is about what Quilatalap had with almost everyone in the House. Delvers went in and out of his dungeon all the time, bringing out riches and more, if they were very good, but mostly people went in and came out empty handed. They usually gained the knowledge needed to try another day, though.

Erick went in and out as he pleased, for Quilatalap lived inside this dungeon.

The Apparent King stepped down onto grassy land outside the dungeon’s brutalist entrance, and a part of him felt like he was coming home. The Kingly part of him, though, stood well over 2 meters tall, straight-backed, with black horns on his head and white and black robe flickering with lightning upon its edges. His clothes were mostly an illusion of power, but Erick maintained his illusions of power in this public space, as he was well-trained to do. Fewer people tried to kill him and those around him when he looked the part of The Wizard, and The King.

Glossy black stone rose up from the ground in front of him, like black kendrithyst crystals growing together, forming a foundation first, and then towering overhead to join together to blot out the sun with their enormity. It looked like a dangerous place, and it was. Four thousand people died in those dark depths every single day. Mostly, those people came back, [True Resurrection]’d either by the Archlich, or by the Grand Dungeon itself.

In a way, all of the largest, most put-together dungeons were sort of like this one.

Even with all the dark immensity of this place, there were offices of intake and outlet on the left and right sides of the dungeon entrance, adding a sort of banal, Disney-esque corporatization to the entire affair. The Dungeoneer’s Guildhouse, a massive thing of wood and stone that rivaled the dungeon entrance for size, lay about half a kilometer to the south, towering like an Adventurer’s Guildhouse upon the prairie.

If it weren’t for the giant collection of towering black crystals, and the well-paved road leading from the Dungeoneer’s Guild to this place, this place would look rather normal. As it was, it almost looked like an attraction at a theme park.

The early-morning crowds certainly gave that impression, too.

Erick paid little outward attention to the various people all around, as those people gave him looks, and exclaimed about this or that. He just walked forward, into the dark interior of the black crystal structure. Ophiel trailed behind him, singing a tiny song about purple tarts. At least the little guy kept his song narrowed to his personal concerns. It was somewhat embarrassing when the little guy would sing little love songs he had overheard over the years, whenever Erick walked this way.

The Apparent King strode past the small line of delvers, all equipped in their real armor and with their real weapons, all waiting for their turn at the dungeon laying far beyond the dark hallways. Then he walked past the first guardian undead, which was a simple bird skeleton perched on a pole in the middle of the hallway. The skeleton bird would squawk at people, warning them to stay away until it was their turn, and then it would do worse if people tried to sneak around, or ignore it.

Just beyond that guardian skeleton were massive black-boned skeletons, dozens of them, lurking in the darkness to the sides of the black-crystal tunnel, almost vanishing in the shadows, except for their eyes which were like distant pairs of stars. They watched Erick as he walked past, their heads slightly turning to track his movements. They did nothing more than watch, which was also all the skeleton bird had done.

Ophiel fluffed up at the gazes of the black-boned skeletons, his song turning more solid, as though he could ward off the shadows with mere words. Which he could, no doubt; he’d have to put in some actual magical effort into those words, though. Ophiel wasn’t scared of much these days, for he had seen almost everything Erick had seen these last 13 years, but he still got nervous around eyes in the dark.

Erick couldn’t blame him for that.

The Apparent King strode down the dark hallways of the Grand Dungeon’s entrance. Eventually, under a black dome of crystal that was much more than that, Erick came to a hole in the world, ringed in black light. Beyond that hole lay the dungeon. It was a land of soft grasses and trails leading this way and that, while forests and mountains rose in the far distance beyond.

Erick glanced upward, up, up, to the ceiling, where the first true guardian of the dungeon stood watch, hidden in the shadows, here at the true entrance of the dungeon.

It was a thing of long arms, a head made of several heads, eyes at the end of every palm, and dark, forgetful magic lingering in the black fur of the animated beast. It was a black moon reacher. There were three more of them prowling around the exterior of the dungeon, though those ones out there were much, much smaller. This one was the size of a mansion, and was technically an amalgam of tens of black moon reachers; the ones that went unseen, unknown, unfelt, and who could reach through magic to take and kill whatever they touched.

According to Erick, that monster was #1 the creepiest fucking thing in the entire kingdom. It was one of Quilatalap’s many masterpieces, and it was about as powerful as one of Melemizargo’s Ancients, back when he was still making those. It hardly ever did anything, though, so according to everyone else in the kingdom, Erick or Quilatalap himself ranked #1.

Still, though, the look of that thing hanging under the dome of the ceiling gave Erick a frightful case of the heebiejeebies. Jane couldn’t stand the damned thing at all; she hated all moon reachers with extreme prejudice.

Erick ignored the monster overhead, as it did the same for him, and then Erick hopped through the dungeon portal, back into the bright sunlight on the other side, where green fields spread out in every distance and the horizon was a land of mountains. Paths lay at his feet, pointing the way to several different trials and tribulations.

Erick stepped off the paths, ignored the warning trill that briefly filled the air like a dying cat, and walked his own way, through the knee-high grasses.

A minute into his walk, he passed an invisible corner in the dungeon’s domain, and then he turned left.

To all outside observers, Erick had walked behind the air.

The grass stilled, and then, as though nothing was wrong, a breeze passed across the plains, sending the grasses back to movement, like they were green waves in an ocean.

- - - -

White lightning struck a white boulder that was covered in moss, half-buried in a rock garden at the side of a real garden, and a house. Erick stepped out of the light. For a brief moment he was imposing. Larger than life. Broad-shouldered and with a crown of black horns on his head, with a robe of white shimmers and deepest black, just in case Quilatalap had some guests. But there were no guests. And so, Erick smiled, transforming in that moment from the Apparent King, to just Erick, as he dispelled his horns and ditched his shoes, to feel the greenery underfoot…

Whatever repro came out of today would likely remember these next few hours in a nebulous sort of way.

Erick hoped that however ‘Erick-2’ turned out, that he wouldn’t be angry that he wasn’t the original.

- - - -

Erick held within his hands a core that was oh-so-similar to the one beside his own heart; perfectly spherical, the size of a fist, and iridescent white. It contained everything that was himself, along with a very tailored experience of meeting Quilatalap and deciding to actually go through with this whole thing; this ‘vacation’.

The dungeon master slime that gained this core wouldn’t really understand what he was until hours after implantation, though, and when that happened, and the memories finally settled, he would be Erick. In almost every way that counted, Erick-version-2 would be Erick. He’d probably pick a real name for himself, though.

Erick held out the sphere to Quilatalap.

Quilatalap took the sphere into his much larger green hands, and then he put his other hand on Erick’s shoulder. “He’ll be fine, and I won’t do the implantation for days yet anyway.” He flicked the sphere into the air, where it vanished instantly. He put his other hand on Erick’s other shoulder, and pulled him in for a hug. “He and Quil are going to get along well.”

Erick sighed as he held Quilatalap. “Gods that’s going to be such a mess.”

“It might not be. No way to really know until I actually introduce the core to a dungeon master slime.” Quilatalap pulled away. “You’re really sure you want to give him all your spellwork?”

“I am. It would be cruel for me to do otherwise to myself.” Erick rapidly added, “I know you do it differently, but… I couldn’t see myself not having all of the spells I have now.”

“I’ve regained my spellwork so many times I hardly need a foundation anymore to get up and running again.” Quilatalap grinned. “And it’s nice making a different Status every few decades or so.”

“Eh… Maybe.” Erick said, “I’ll have everything lined up as soon as I can, and then we can go. Thank you for agreeing to come help with this, Quilatalap.”

“If Sininindi’s proposal isn’t completely untenable, then I’m probably going to agree to it in exchange for some actual assurances of peace between the greater pantheon and I.” Quilatalap shrugged. “She’s probably going to have me stick around there for the foreseeable future, too, but that’s fine with me.”

“Hopefully her demands aren’t too great. It’s a good chance for actual peace, right?”

“The possibility is there. Of course, she could be doing this because she wants you to be involved in her power, somehow.”

Erick was not so sure of that. “She hasn’t wanted me to get anywhere near Everbless.

“Maybe she does, now. Everbless is growing up just like Yggdrasil.”

“He’s only begun to talk last year. Meanwhile, Yggdrasil has 9 bodies and he’s piggy-backing off of me, so he’s growing a lot faster than Everbless.”

Yggdrasil’s twin, created at the moment of Yggdrasil’s own creation, way back before Last Shadow’s Feast, was taken by Sininindi as fulfillment of her demand that Erick make a [Control Weather] machine. The goddess of Storm and Sea had named that ‘machine’ ‘Everbless’, and he was anything but a machine to Sininindi. From everything Erick had heard, Sininindi truly doted on the World Tree.

Over the years, and from a great distance, Erick had watched Everbless grow from a seedling to a full World Tree, but where Yggdrasil was white-barked, green-leaved, and rainbow-crowned, Everbless was deeply affected by the Storm Goddess’s power. Everbless might be Yggdrasil’s twin, but they looked and acted nothing alike. Everbless was still only a kilometer tall, and he had only begun speaking about 16 months ago. Rather stunted growth, there… Or maybe Everbless was simply experiencing normal growth rates? Probably.

Quilatalap chuckled a little. “I suppose Everbless isn’t very big.” He changed the subject, “So! I want dinner at the Saucery before we go to Storm’s Edge.”

Erick smiled. “It’s been a few years, hasn’t it? I will make that happen.”

“Good! Now go on and get back to being a king. I’ve got a lot of stuff to do, too, since I’ll be handing off the Grand Dungeon for a while.”

“See you tonight? Talk more?”

“How about tomorrow?”

“Sure.”

- - - -

The day passed with little in the way of events, except for another odd monster break on Dungeon Island, over at Quintlan. Erick didn’t need to clean up that monster mess, for the local Dungeoneering Guildhouse was on the case, but there were a dozen dead that Erick had sudden responsibility over. So he revived them, because the local guildmaster asked, and that revivification had been a major part of their international agreements.

Back when Hollowsaur and Treant and others had taken the island back from the oozes, nearly 9 years ago now, the collective efforts of the world moved in. It was there that the people of the world truly started working toward making a replacement for the Script in those experimental dungeons. House Benevolence was one of those signers of those agreements, and so had agreed to certain things. One of those things was the revival of those who had been lost to dungeon breaks or other disasters in the area, and who had agreed to signing the associated paperwork.

The dead people today got un-deaded, then they got some new paperwork to go with their new lives, because a [True Resurrection] outside of the dungeons carried with it a closing of all current bank accounts and property and lives. Because of that, all 12 people got [Reincarnation]s, too; [Reincarnation] was simply a bonus that Erick included because he could. It wasn’t a part of the normal [True Resurrection] agreements.

That whole [True Resurrection] debate was still going on in the courthouses across the world, but House Benevolence and Oceanside and Dungeon Island had come to an agreement with how [Resurrection], at least, would be treated; it would be as though the recipient had legally died. People got around this legality many different ways, since the Fractured Citadels and all the liches of those lands had interests in Dungeon Island, too, but House Benevolence adhered to the international treaty.

Erick was still sitting on his throne, at the top room of House Benevolence, dealing with the final parts of that minor international incident, when Kiri showed.

The Wizard’s Apprentice appeared on the other side of a white-rimmed [Gate], stepping through from some mountainous land directly into the throne room. She was no longer the 19 year old girl who had whipped Erick in the training arena, and who had the audacity to ask for an apprenticeship; to use Erick for her own needs, while she was already laden with so many entanglements to those who would also use Erick for their own needs.

She was 32, now, and a full woman grown. Her green scales gleamed in the rainbow-white light of the throne room and under the bright sun overhead. Her green dress was layered and formal, but made for fighting, while her green horns curled backward, forming most of a halo. She saw Erick, and she smiled, her bright white eyes flickering with Benevolent lightning. She might have been born with a green magic signature, but her transition into a Benevolence Dragon years ago pushed her full-white. Her transition also made her a little over 2 meters tall, making her the second tallest person in the room.

Kiri glanced to Zolan, who was the only other person in the room, not counting Ophiel.

The Castellan of House Benevolence stood on the ground just beyond the Benevolent Throne and its dais. The pale-purple demi was even more handsome a decade after his [Reincarnation], in Erick’s opinion, and he had regained all of his previous magical power, and then some. He was considered the most eligible bachelor in the kingdom, and his days were barely less busy than Erick’s. He didn’t often act as Erick’s personal secretary, for Erick had about ten of those people, but for certain shifts in schedule, Zolan reported personally to the Apparent King, which is exactly what had happened with this Dungeon Island problem.

Zolan gave a small nod toward Kiri, then easily said to Erick, “I’ve pushed back your 4:00 pm appointments, but it seems the Overseer of Gate Expansion is particularly eager today. Pray tell, I hope it’s nothing bad.”

Erick almost laughed at that. Zolan wasn’t a Mind Mage, and he did not have Intelligence, but he was whip-smart anyway.

Kiri stood tall, her eyes focused on Erick, “Is today the big day?”

Kiri was always a smart one, too. Thanks to all the New Stats, and a clearing/prevention of the shadeling curse by Erick himself, she was even smarter, with well over a hundred base Intelligence.

Zolan wasn’t often surprised these days, but he was surprised by Kiri’s declaration; her insinuation. He looked to Erick. “The big day?”

Erick wrapped the room in a [Hasted Shelter]. Time slowed to a crawl. “Since you’re both here, there is something very large happening, and it is time you both knew of it. To begin with, over the next 6 months to a year, I am going to be working toward removing Yggdrasil’s 100-year seal…”

Erick explained.

Kiri’s eyes shone with worry, and joy, and anticipation, and finally, as she came down from the high of ‘it’s finally happening’, she rapidly transformed into the capable archmage and statesman she had grown into over the last ten years. Her recent Worldly Path had finally filed down her most dangerous parts, like her thoughts about places like Greensoil, which had fucked her over in her younger years due to human supremacy being the law of the land. She still saw injustice everywhere, which was great, but she could at least work with Greensoil these days without pissing off some noble from over there with pointed questions.

Zolan frowned a little throughout the whole explanation, and then, when Erick was done, he announced, “Archmage Flamecrash is not ready for this responsibility.”

Kiri asked him, “Will you help me be ready with this responsibility?”

“I’m not vanishing off the face of Veird,” Erick said, “But I am going on a sabbatical, at least. Six months to a year, and hopefully by the time that is done, when I come back it won’t be in nearly as large a position as I have now. You can contact me if something horrendous happens or is about to happen, but I imagine that I’m going to be traveling by myself for most of the trip, and I would appreciate not having any interruptions at all.”

Zolan frowned a little.

Kiri stood strong, waiting, hoping that Zolan would agree to this. And then she went on the offensive. “I will not be able to replace Erick, so the House will likely have to go through a minor restructuring. I’m imagining you, Zolan, taking over as Head of House in Erick’s absence.”

Zolan sighed a little. “The fact is that no one will ever be able to replace Erick… But you are a close second. And you want it, right?”

“Absolutely,” Kiri said, without hesitation.

“Glad to see that hasn’t suddenly changed, unlike other truths I thought were stable,” Zolan said.

Erick smiled softly. “Kiri can do the job with everyone’s help, Zolan; just like me. This organization is too big for anyone to do on their own.”

Zolan looked to Erick, his expression hard. “Promise me you won’t start some other organization when your sabbatical is over; that you will come back.”

“Absolutely,” Erick said, “And my repro will be around here somewhere in case you have questions for me. He’ll probably want to continue working, too… But I have no idea how he’s going to be. Not really.”

Kiri said, “Well I think it’s great you’re trying for one, and he’s probably going to work out fine. Better than mine.”

Zolan looked straight at Kiri and announced, “You and I will have quite a few talks about what went wrong there, along with a hundred other hours of dialogue before I accept you as a temporary replacement for Erick.”

Kiri nodded, saying, “You always have the best interests of the House at heart, so I would expect nothing less from you, Zolan. I know none of us are ready for this transition, but at least you won’t have any more 60-hour days.”

Zolan had a complicated set of emotions over Kiri’s last words. After a moment, he said, “I suppose small miracles can be found where least expected.”

Erick smiled, and then he got up off his throne, saying, “Let’s talk transition. Kiri? Want to try out the throne—”

Three things happened fast.

Kiri gleefully, yet calmly, walked forward, her eyes locked on that simple, white stone throne.

Erick stepped aside.

And Zolan announced, “NOPE!”

Erick frowned a little.

Kiri tsk’d, briefly narrowing her eyes as though a prize had been snatched from her.

Zolan said, “Make a new throne for her. Smaller and set to the side. Maybe your throne can be moved backward, and Kiri’s throne can go where yours is now, but Kiri is not taking your throne. I’m not having that, and neither is the House.”

“Eminently reasonable,” Kiri said. “I’ll make my own throne.”

“Also,” Zolan said, “You’re not stepping down from Gatemaster, Erick. You’re elevating to the position of ‘Wizard’, which is informal but which I have just decided needs to be made formal. ‘Wizard’ is above ‘Gatemaster’, of course, and then Kiri is taking ‘Gatemaster’. A lot of specific duties will move around… Thusly.”

“Reasonable, and acceptable,” Kiri said, her voice still solid and unperturbed.

And she wasn’t faking it, either.

The Kiri of a decade ago would have been miffed by Zolan’s shifts and demands, but the Kiri of today was older and wiser, and she had been working toward this goal right here ever since Erick started truly raising her to be his successor. She still wasn’t completely ready for the role, but she was close.

Over the next few hours they spoke of what needed to change around here in order to elevate Kiri to a separate, smaller throne. Funnily enough, they eventually decided that Kiri wouldn’t get a throne at all. She would simply take her Overseer chair and put it up there in front of Erick’s throne.

Erick was sure everything was going to work out fine.

- - - -

Eventually, Zolan had other things he needed to attend to, and quickly, so he requested Erick allow him an Ophiel and a [Hasted Shelter] so he could have some of his own emergency meetings. Erick easily agreed to this, and soon, Ophiel sat down on Zolan’s shoulder, squeaking out small hellos. Zolan smiled a little bit at that and pulled a purple candy from his pocket; the same pocket which Ophiel had been poking at when he sat down on Zolan’s shoulder. He and Ophiel got along well, with Zolan always giving the little guy little treats, now that he could taste things.

As he handed off a second candy to Ophiel, Zolan said to Erick, “I like that you’re unsealing, or re-sealing, Yggdrasil. I hope that your actual ascension to Wizard goes well, too, for I’m looking forward to never having to use [Hasted Shelter] again, and relying on you to simply [Return] if something catastrophic has gone wrong.”

Erick laughed at that. “Didn’t take much to convince you, eh? Just needed to be able to finally bend the universe to my will?”

“If your repro is half the man you are, then we’re all going to be okay.” Zolan said to Ophiel, “Okay, Ophiel. Let’s go to the Office of the Exterior.”

Ophiel chirped, “Office of the Exterior!” as he opened up a [Gate] directly there.

Zolan stepped through the edge of the [Hasted Shelter], experiencing a bit of a time dilation lag and ephemeral burn, but it was only 250-ish damage, and he had more than enough [Personal Ward] to withstand that. Ophiel did too. They moved like absolute molasses in the office space on the other side of the [Gate], though, so Erick conjured a wall to block off the view inside the throne room. After a few subjective minutes over here, and only seconds over there, Ophiel would close the [Gate].

For now, Erick turned to Kiri—

And Kiri giggled like a schoolgirl as she wrapped Erick in a sudden hug, saying, “Oh my gods, Erick! It’s finally happening!”

Erick hugged her back, being careful of her horns, and of his own horns, saying, “You deserve it. You’ve worked hard for it.”

Kiri hugged tighter once more, then pulled away, her eyes shining with unshed tears. “I was expecting another ten years. Not a transition a month or two out from my completion of the Path.”

“I think Yggdrasil has been waiting for years to ask this of me, and with you becoming a real option, he decided to ask this of me now. All the rest of it is just some godly drama, I think.” Erick said, “I’ll be working to ensure that the 90-year timeline to new worlds remains intact, though. Not a single person is ready for that to happen in the next year.”

Kiri put away her mirth, and she became the woman who Erick knew would become Gatemaster. “You hope that is the case. You don’t actually know. In fact, there’s that convenient gap between the seal transferring to Yggdrasil and you becoming a Wizard capable of enforcing that shifted seal. Someone is going to exploit that gap, Erick, and it’s going to be the gods; any number of them, maybe all of them.” Kiri said, “The gods went along with this dungeon core program awful damned fast for a lot of different reasons, most of which are about expanding their own personal domains and sucking in new worshipers. Or creating those worshipers directly, and sometimes in order to directly attack Melemizargo in a faith-campaign inside his own Darkness.” Kiri said, “The gods are not truly benevolent. They press and shape and carve the world as they are wont, making it in their image as dictated by their beliefs, just as much as Melemizargo does.”

Erick had already considered all that, but he was glad that Kiri had considered all that, too. “I know. Something is likely going to happen, but if it does, I can always fall back on Big Wizardry; it just won’t be as Big or solid as it could be, without being a Full Wizard myself.”

Kiri frowned a little. “I suppose… That could be true.” Then she added, “I always thought that you never went far enough with combining your two Statuses. You still have two of them; you should only have one.”

“Well… I did what I could there. Combined all the things I could combine; erased everything that didn’t fit.” Erick admitted, “All I ever managed to do was make both Statuses look the same.”

- -

Erick Flatt

Protean, age 12

Level 99, Class: Particle Mage

Exp: 9.71e24/ 100e100

Class: 20/20

Points: 37

HP

30,960/30,960

86,400 per day

MP

55,768/55,800

86,400 per day

Strength / 208 / +50 / [258]

Vitality / 207 / +50 / [257]

Dexterity / 207 / +50 / [257]

Constitution / 208 / +50 / [258]

Perception / 221 / +50 / [271]

Willpower / 414 / +50 / [464]

Focus / 413 / +50 / [463]

Intelligence / 211 / +50 / [261]

Favored Spell Waiting!

Favored Ability waiting!

Favored Ability waiting!

Favored Ability waiting!

Favored Ability waiting!

- -

“Both forms even have a core, too.” Erick changed the subject, “Speaking of which! How much mana production per day are you up to? How goes your own core?”

Kiri eyed Erick, not willing to change the subject that easily. But she digressed. “My core is fine. Maintaining it is always and forever annoying, but having my own base of mana allowed me to conquer all those dungeons and finish the Path. I’m up to 15,000 mana production per day, too. Somewhere around there, usually.” She shrugged. “Should increase to something like 25,000 per day once I become Gatemaster-in-full, but even 50 per day is enough to maintain the core. I haven’t been worried about my core for years now.” She added, “What I have had to worry about is Wizardry.”

“Have you given yourself any new Abilities through your own Small Wizardry?”

“… Multi-[Ward], like you. Having two [Personal Ward]s has been great outside of dungeons, though it’s rare to find a dungeon that actually allows Script magic to work at all… That whole Worldly Path was rather great for my capability. Still working on creating Mana Siphon, though I suspect I won't be able to get that [Renew]-based one without some approval from Rozeta, or something similar.”

“Mana Siphon is pretty awesome,” Erick said, smirking.

Class Abilities were special applications of the Script that allowed for things that normal spellwork could not easily do, or they were solidifications of spellwork that were not able to be disrupted by an enemy’s [Dispel], or other similar negating power. Doubling resources was one major application of Ability. Taking reduced damage, always, was another.

Erick had filled out his Class Abilities a decade ago, though he had changed up a few of them as he gained them. Multi-[Ward] had required Wizardry to attain, since that Class Ability was the bedrock upon which the Class: Warder was built upon, while Erick’s Particle Mage was built upon the generic Force Mage Class. Getting the base power of other Classes in his own Class had been difficult, but Erick had managed to do that by hiring some Warders and other Classes to answer his questions, and then singing a small song at the end of those lessons.

Erick had managed to grab that base power several times over the years.

He had even managed to add a Base Class Ability to Particle Mage; Particle Sense, which allowed the user to look or touch or otherwise focus a singular material, and to then understand its atomic and molecular composition. That Ability was an offshoot of Metal Sense, which allowed the Smith Class to understand metal, which Erick had also gained.

- -

Particle Mage

Particular Insight - Spend 100 mana to discover if a Particle spell is possible, greatly reducing the risk of Errors.

Particle Witness - If you witness a Particle spell and you understand it, you may unlock that spell for free.

Sculpt Spell - Major Mana Shaping applies to all Spells. Altering ongoing Auras is considerably easier.

Lesser World Warden – Double damage. Double resources

Mana Shield – Damage taken is mitigated by Mana as well as Health.

Particle Spell Creation - Your ability to create new Particle Spells is Greatly Increased.

Quest Board – See what others desire, and post your own desires for others to see.

Blood Mana – Spend Health as though it were Mana.

Light Dedication - Take much less damage from Light Sources. Do much more damage with Light Sources.

Force Savant - Your Force spells do more and cost less.

Gatemaster - Double the effective range of your gate space. Minor improvements to everything gate related.

Multi-Ward – Double up on [Personal Ward]s.

Benevolent Draconic Rebirth – Donate a portion of your overflowing Benevolent Draconic Essence to another in order to raise a willing recipient to full Draconic Benevolence. Current overflow: <7>

Particle Sense – Touch an object and understand its particle breakdown.

Metal Sense – Touch a metallic object and understand the internal stresses of the object.

Benevolent Touch – Shift the destiny of a person onto a better path.

Mana Siphon – All spells that attempt to deal damage to you are Drained of power, granting you extra resources based on that drain.

Failsafe – Upon receiving a fatal blow, trigger a <[Return]> instead.

Failsafe – Upon receiving a fatal blow, trigger a <[Time Stop]> instead.

Shifting Form - [Polymorph] becomes Variable cost. Gain the ability to partially and cohesively adjust your Form for a reduced cost.

- -

There were a few Abilities he switched out now and then, when he needed them. Book Savant was one of them, for when he needed to do better Book Magic. That one usually replaced Force Savant, but Force Savant was a good generic Ability; it boosted almost all magic by a slight amount. He also had Extreme Survivor, just in case he needed to go lava-diving, or he needed to spend a week out in the colder parts of the world, building Gate systems. A lot of things usually replaced Force Savant when the need arose.

Erick had tried out the Summoner’s Double Summons once, but he had only done that for six months before Ophiel started acting really weird, and much older. The little guy had advanced several years of growth in that short time that Erick had 20 of them flying around out there. Erick didn’t mess around with any Summoner Abilities after that.

Other than that, all the rest of the Abilities were solid choices.

Benevolent Draconic Rebirth was there because it was time-consuming to have someone try and gain Dragon Essence and then have Erick shift them to Benevolence after they were done. So he had Wizarded up a solution into a single Ability that took care of the whole process at once.

Failsafe was there because Erick had experimented with Charm Magic versions of [Return] and [Time Stop] and found them lacking, because they could be taken away, or disrupted. He had almost been assassinated in that way, once. Class Abilities could not be disrupted or stolen, though.

Mana Siphon was just about the best defensive Ability anyone could have when it came to magical battles, but it was based on [Renew], which Erick had made, and to his knowledge he was the only person with that Ability at all. Kiri was having trouble getting that Ability, it seemed, but Erick was sure she could pull it off eventually.

Shifting Form was there because… Well. It was a quality of life option. As a Protean, Erick could shift his form at will with [Perfect Polymorph], but Shifting Form made the whole thing easier.

Metal Sense and Particle Sense were there because Erick was often working in metal, and purity was important. He had long upgraded the system to Gate Version 27, and he honestly could not think of more ways in which to improve the Gate Network, but those Abilities were crucial to working within the tolerances that the Gate Network now demanded from Erick.

Erick asked, “You have Metal Sense and Particle Sense, yes?”

“I don’t have enough room for both, so Metal Sense will have to do. I can still make the Gates with the ingots you left, and with the duplicator it should be more than enough.”

Erick smiled. “This’ll all be much easier for you once you get some godly boons. Maybe even Rozeta’s Abilities, for 20 of the things instead of just 10. This office should give you ample opportunity to gain those.”

Kiri eyed him. “Did you take any boons from anyone in all these years, though? At all?”

“Nope; they always came with strings. I’m fine with having strings from Rozeta, but not with Sumtir asking me to oversee war zones. But they were offered to me now and again. I’m sure you’ll get a lot of people offering you a lot of different things, Kiri. Only accept the ones you know you can live with. Rozeta, primarily. She never said anything to me about giving you any, but I’m sure that after you prove yourself for a while she’ll give you something. Probably a lot of somethings.”

Kiri stood strong. “Of course.”

Erick looked his apprentice over again. She looked happy. Erick was glad for that. “Draconism suits you.”

Kiri blushed a little, her emerald-scaled face darkening. Sunny, wrapped around her neck like a scaly green scarf, flickered in rainbow light briefly, trying to match Kiri’s color change before quieting again, returning to simple observation of everything happening around her. Kiri patted the little girl, and Sunny changed colors again.

Kiri said, “I don’t know why I was ever worried about having wings; none of the other dragons you’ve transformed ended up like you.”

“Now if the Cult will stop calling me Melemizargo, then that’d be great.”

Kiri chuckled.

Erick asked, “Do you think your family might finally move here, now that you’re going to be even more important?”

Kiri almost waved off the question because she had asked her family repeatedly to move over here to Candlepoint, and they had repeatedly declined, no matter what Kiri offered them. But then Kiri thought about the question. She realized...

Erick watched as Kiri understood what he was getting at.

Kiri steeled herself, and said, “I’m going to have to force the issue, aren’t I. They cannot be outside of my power once I’m Gatemaster. It’s too much of a security issue, even if they did accept the guards I put on them; it’s just not enough.”

Erick nodded. “Try to be gentle, but yes; they cannot be citizens of Odaali and Greensoil any longer.” Erick stepped back toward his throne, saying, “I have a lot to do before I can leave, just as you have a lot to do before you can step up.”

Kiri nodded.

They parted.

- - - -

Erick dispersed the [Hasted Shelter].

Time resumed its normal course, and the Apparent King got back into the groove of solving problems the world over from the non-comfort of his white-stone throne. Some problems were easier than others. Half a world away Erick found some bandits hiding out in the woods outside of a distant city of the Songli Highlands. He sent Ophiel in, looking like a plain-copy of himself, whereupon Erick found their leader and demanded they cease their attacks on the Local Area Gate Network, or face the consequences. They attacked Ophiel, but Ophiel simply ignored their attacks, and unfurled his wings from Erick’s avatar, making him look like one of Earth’s modern-day Christian angels, showing himself as not just some random person, but as the Apparent King.

And then Erick filled the sky with [Inevitable Bombardment]s, laying down a constellation of radiant bombs ready to drop at a moment’s notice. While everyone suddenly panicked, Erick had Ophiel point upward, as he announced a 5 minute deadline. The bandit camp would either die, or move on to a better life, under the aegis of Candlepoint.

Erick went on to solve something else.

By the time he came back, the bandits had surrendered. He canceled the Bombardment, and then filed the bandits through a [Gate] to Candlepoint, where they would be put into a work program and given free housing and food and safety. The recidivism rate for that program was rather low, but according to the relieved looks on the bandits’ faces and at the sudden cheer of being able to live inside city walls again, Erick expected these specific people to never resort to banditry ever again. From what Erick was seeing, they were all exiles from the Highlands for some reason, which was fine. A bit of investigation of the camp turned up nothing untoward. They didn’t have any slave collars or dead bodies around their camp; they were just people down on their luck who had turned to thieving in order to get by.

Ophiel hung around long enough for Erick to accept the thanks of the operators of the The Local Area Gate Network, and then Ophiel moved on.

As Erick moved on to the next problem, he realized he could sit here and solve worldly issues from now until forever, and he would never grow tired of helping people, but… The world was stable, for now.

It was time to distance himself from this absolute power; to prepare to spend some more time with his kids. Ophiel would need him there when he separated and Yggdrasil would, too, even if the big guy was trying to be more and more independent.

Maybe it was time for some paternity leave. Sure, Erick had planned for a 9-ish month sabbatical, but he could easily turn that all the way up to a two year leave of absence.

Maybe Jane would be up for a visit, too?

Erick smiled as he imagined a vacation with all three of his kids…

And then he worried, his smile crashing, the very air around him seeming to dim with unexpected concern. How would such a vacation even work? Physically? They couldn’t all just… go to a museum or a play together. Even the old standby of a beach vacation—

Well.

No?

They could do that, actually.

Jane and Erick both had human-shaped forms. Ophiel would get one, too. And Yggdrasil would have a human-shaped form of his very own, soon enough! One that he had made on his own!

Oh!

Maybe they could all go to a beach together! That would be really fun.

The air in the throne room began to glitter with sparkling joy.

If nothing disastrous happened between now and Yggdrasil’s re-sealing and Erick’s ascension to Full Wizard…

It would be really nice to go to some sort of play or something with all his kids.

… Oh. But. Would Ophiel be, like, a toddler? Would there be 10 of him? Or just one?

Hmm...

- - - -

Three days passed quickly and without incident.

Erick had a nice date with Quilatalap at the Saucery. Kiri got up to speed on most of her new duties. Jane had some Thoughts on Yggdrasil’s re-sealing, and while she was full of worry, she was also incredibly busy. Jane had asked, if Erick was getting out of the House anyway, if he could come meet for a better talk, in person, in Adventurer City. Erick had no problems at all agreeing to that.

He was beyond happy that Jane had even asked.

Soon, though, it was time to inform the last remaining people in his personal life.

Teressa came back to the cloud castle along with her husband Dariok soon enough, and the two of them joined Erick, Kiri, Poi, Rizala, and Rizala’s husband Variol for a nice dinner. They didn’t talk business at the table, but afterward, Erick announced Yggdrasil’s re-sealing.

Teressa had a complicated set of emotions as the news fully settled into the room. The large woman was still as strong and as beautiful as she had been when she first decided to become a guard for Erick, way back when they were at Spur. But a few facts of life had hit her hard over the years, and those facts were hitting her all over again. As Variol opened the floor, asking what Yggdrasil’s re-sealing truly meant, and as Kiri spoke over the transition to her becoming Gatemaster…

Teressa sat there silently staring forward, into the middle distance.

She was not having a vision.

She was deciding on something.

Dariok reached out and took Teressa’s hand, and Teressa returned his steady grip.

Erick liked Dariok. He was an orcol and a great match for Teressa. The two of them had actually met at Rozeta's Orrery years ago, back when Teressa went down there to truly try and understand her [Benevolent Sight]. Apparently, they had almost met a year before they actually did, because Dariok had been a part of the Benevolence Essence program out of the Office of the Overseer of Magic around 8 years ago.

They hit it off wonderfully when they did actually meet, though, like two complementary souls finding each other in the vastness of improbability.

There had been one problem, though.

Erick participated in the conversation happening around them, answering questions and concerns as Poi and Kiri and Rizala spoke of them, everyone trying to understand what was going to happen next, now that they were all in the same room and talking about it.

But Erick mainly focused on Teressa.

Finally, Teressa spoke, “A few nights ago we saw some disturbances in the Benevolent Sky. Those disturbances coincided with this event happening now— this event that has already happened. And which will continue to happen.” She said, “But that’s all it was. A disturbance. Followed by a settling. A few distant problems shifted subtly, perhaps most notably the rise of Computational Magic is both 5 years away and 75 years away, but that’s normal for something as esoteric and then suddenly-relevant as Computational Magic… Probably just an offshoot of Book Magic, anyway, like how the specific application of Water Magic can be called River Magic or Ocean Magic in certain circumstances—” She cut herself off, then looked at Erick… Then she looked at Dariok, who nodded, and then Teressa looked back to Erick. “I want the [Reincarnation], the All Stats, and the [Soul Realignment] before you go on this journey. It’s time to finally move on from the Juggernaut Class, and to right an old wrong.”

The rest of the room was silent.

Erick said, “Okay. We’ll do it after this talk.” He looked to Dariok. “Will you be taking that option as well?”

“Yes, sir,” Dariok said, his voice filled with conviction. “Thank you for the offer, and this opportunity.”

Teressa spoke up, “Yes. Thank you, Erick.”

Erick smiled softly. “I’d do anything for both of you. You’re going to make wonderful parents.”

Years ago, Teressa and Dariok had found out that both of them had shared a lot of things in common. Their general path in life looked rather similar. Both of them had started off in migrant orcol tribes, and both of their tribes had been wiped out, leaving them as the final survivors. Teressa had lost her people to the Shade known as the Witch. Dariok had lost his people to a deathsoul shroom infection.

Eventually, both of them had delved deep into prognostication in order to ensure that they would see the bad things coming.

And then, they had both ended up at House Benevolence, and they had fallen in love.

Their wedding had been magnificent, and Erick had cried happy tears.

But then, Teressa and Dariok had tried for kids for years. Apparently, both of them were infertile. They finally went to Atunir, the Goddess of Field and Fertility, looking for answers and solutions. She had told them that she could solve Teressa’s issue, but Dariok’s issue was both soul and genetic-based. For him, there was literally nothing there to heal, though it looked like there should be. He had escaped the deathsoul shroom, but not completely.

Erick, however, could solve all of those problems, and now it was finally time to take that major step.

At Erick’s words of calling them wonderful parents, Teressa relaxed. Her shoulders untensed, her breathing came easier, and she gripped Dariok’s hand hard. She smiled, and small tears fell.

Poi spoke up, wishing them happiness, and then so did Kiri, though she took Teressa into a sudden hug, for she was a hugger, and Teressa laughed, happy and joyful. Erick joined in on the hug, too. For a good minute, everything was perfect.

And then the moment passed.

Erick asked, “So about the disturbance in the Benevolent Sky?”

“Right!” Teressa glowed as she began, “The sun-ward sections of the sky flickered dark most solidly, but then everything went back to how it was. Starting with Yoril’s future, we saw...”

Teressa spoke of how Yggdrasil’s re-sealing showed that something would happen, but it didn’t seem to be anything horrible.

Erick was pretty sure that everything was going to be okay, and if it turned out that something bad was going to happen, then he would just pull out the Big Wizard solutions.

Later, Erick settled both Teressa and Dariok into their new bodies; same as the old, but younger, and healthier. It would take them some time to regain their spellwork, but they had time now. A lot of time. They were going to be wonderful parents.

- - - -

Erick lightstepped away from the sleeping forms of Teressa and Dariok, to stand upon the tallest tower of his cloud castle. The night sky stretched overhead, luminous in its starry magnificence, while Erick’s castle held all around; white stone buildings joined together by walkways and courtyards and clouds and magic.

From the bridge of his cloud castle hovering high above House Benevolence, Erick looked down and saw even more stars and light.

Yggdrasil was a green mountain reaching high, high into the sky, to the south, like the largest glowing green mountain anyone had ever seen. A rainbow halo surrounded him, casting light from the center of Candlepoint Lake, all the way to the fully-populated coast, where fisheries and cities and houses fully encircled the waters. Skyscrapers of eternal stonewood stood out here and there along the coast, and further inward, where civilization sprawled.

Feeding that civilization was a constellation crown of a Node Network that extended all the way up and out from Yggdrasil, all the way through the sky, to join every large tower here or there, to link down into the myriad cities themselves. Those glittering Nodes were like street lamps, connected by glowing lines, that attached to every house and building. Wardlights inside those million houses were connected to smaller [Node Network]s, cast by individuals or by people who were a part of the Lighter’s Guild.

Those Lighter’s Guild were almost like how Erick had been, years and years ago, back when he stood in front of the Mage Guild Cleanse-Mend-Light Job Board at Spur, and picked a few [Cleanse] and [Mend] jobs off the wall. Erick had never gotten the chance to put up wardlights back then, for he had already moved on to bigger things before he had gotten that particular Mage Guild certification. But Erick had put up a lot of lights since then. More than a million of them. From those lights, other people put up even more lights every night, and the population boomed.

The Greater Candlepoint Area was one of the most well-lit lands in this world, but it was also full of shadows, both bright and dark, for all of Candlepoint glowed with all colors of the rainbow.

Mostly sunlight-white, though; people liked that color of wardlight the most.